How Does Elie Wiesel Commit Suicide In Night

Eliezer Wiesel, like many other Jews, had to face and battle with suicidal thoughts and the temptation of abandoning everything by simply letting oneself die. Elie Wiesel was tempted to commit suicide in the very beginning, during the first selection that he went through. After the witnessing the death of the babies being burnt in a ditch, as he said it in the novel, “[…], I do not want to wait here. I am going to run in the electric wire. That would be better than slow agony in the flames.” (Page 31). Further in the novel, his father fell ill with dysentery. Shortly before his parent’s death, Eliezer Wiesel was advised to eat his own father’s ration of bread and soup, because the latter was going to die either way; “[…] There’s nothing you
can do for him. And you’re killing yourself. Instead, you ought to be having his ration.” (Page 105). Following this piece of advice, though ashamed of his thoughts, he agreed with him. Quite obviously, the Jews that were deported to Auschwitz had a horrid life - many of the prisoners died of hunger, were shot by the Nazis, or suffered from a disease that later led them to their death. The others who survived the daily struggles, like Eliezer Wiesel, were tempted to commit suicide, to put an end to this living nightmare. And others, who excluded the idea of this brutal act, had to choose between their parent’s life, or their own life.